PROFESSOR BROUGHT TO GROUND

Why would a nationally known economist earning roughly $100,000 a year
working as a tenured professor and consultant decide to start
bootlegging alcohol and marijuana into rural villages?

Former University of Alaska Fairbanks professor and ex-Fairbanks North
Star Borough Assemblyman Bob Logan's defense attorney Bill Satterberg
could only speculate he did it for the excitement.

"He's kind of into the extreme stuff," Satterberg said during Logan's
final sentencing hearing at Rabinowitz Courthouse Friday
morning--hearings also took place Tuesday and Thursday. "Here's
somebody that has lived on the edge, is a loner and basically got
enamored with that concept. Basically it was the flying through the
Arctic, sneaking through passes in his Super Cub, coming in below the
radar."

It's an assessment of Logan that Superior Court Judge Charles Pengilly
agreed with when handing down a combined one-year sentence for two
cases involving bootlegging alcohol to Barrow and selling marijuana to
an undercover drug investigator in Fairbanks in September 2003. That
marijuana, prosecutors said, was also intended for rural villages.

"I have extensive experience in dealing with charges like this," said
Pengilly, who has been a judge in Fairbanks for more than 14 years. "I
have never been called upon to sentence anybody that's a nationally
recognized economist with a PhD."

With that, Pengilly said Logan "has really extraordinary
rehabilitation potential."

Logan admitted to flying 60 750-milliliter bottles of alcohol into
Barrow that he sold for more than $4,500 to an undercover
investigator. The day of his arrest, he sold 4 ounces of marijuana to
the same investigator in the parking lot at Pike's Landing.

Alaska State Trooper investigator Karl Main testified at the hearing
Thursday not only about the events surrounding Logan's arrest, but
also about the effects alcohol has in rural Alaska. He has fished dead
children out of rivers because the parents were too drunk to watch
them and has had to deal with a person who shot someone after handling
a shotgun while intoxicated.

Logan gave a statement that lasted over 20 minutes during the hearing
Friday morning. He said he takes responsibility for his actions and
apologized to the residents of Barrow for supplying the city with
illegal booze.

Logan also asked that he be made an example, and asked the state to
not only prosecute him but to go after others who continue bringing
alcohol into villages.

His defense attorney, Satterberg, singled out the informant in the
case against Logan, Barrow resident Karl Ewing. Satterberg suggested
Ewing turned on his former teacher and friend of more than six years
after accepting three cases of liquor in Barrow and not paying Logan
for them.

Months into the investigation, Ewing asked investigators to pay him
for his cooperation. Investigators said Ewing was paid $5,000.

"The evidence is clear that Mr. Ewing has been in the business of
selling alcohol in Barrow, has been in the business of selling drugs"
and said he's still in the business of selling alcohol, Satterberg
said. "Mr. Ewing, however, needs to be, I think, exposed."

Logan--who said he resigned from his job as a tenured economics
professor last spring while the University of Alaska Fairbanks was
investigating him--spoke emphatically during his statement while
explaining it was Ewing who supplied him with the knowledge to grow
marijuana in his home and that Logan was a good pupil.

Main said it isn't possible to learn how to grow such high-quality
marijuana with just a few months of experience. The drug investigator
said the marijuana Logan sold him was some of the best he's ever seen.

"He knew what he was doing," Main said Thursday.

Assistant District Attorney Scott Mattern argued that Logan was trying
to displace the blame.

"You can blame Mr. Ewing all you want, but Mr. Ewing's supply came
from Mr. Logan," Mattern said.

Logan had tried to get the case dismissed, saying his accomplice had
supplied him with the means for the bootlegging scheme.

When the entrapment claims didn't stick, Logan agreed to hand over his
truck and Super Cub PA18 to the state during a plea deal in August in
exchange for a nine-month sentencing cap in the Barrow case.

The deal reduced the Fairbanks case from five counts of fourth-degree
misconduct involving a controlled substance to one count accusing
Logan of growing, processing, delivering and selling marijuana.

Logan faced a total of 10 counts in the Barrow case: Four counts of
fourth-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, four counts
of selling alcohol without a license, one count of selling alcohol in
a village where it is highly regulated and one count of importing alcohol.

The marijuana charges were dropped and the rest of the charges were
consolidated into one that accused him of illegally selling alcoholic
beverages imported into a damp village.

Besides the year in jail, Pengilly accepted Logan's suggestion and set
a condition that Logan use his expertise to submit a paper researching
the economic implications that fetal alcohol syndrome has on rural
villages for his 60 hours of community service.

Before Logan's lengthy testimony, Mattern argued that Logan was not
thinking about the implications of his actions while he was committing
the crimes.

"Mr. Logan was worried more about his money and how much he could make
so he could afford another trip to the Philippines than the
consequences of what he was doing," Mattern said.

Logan admitted to spreadsheets found at his house after his arrest
detailing profits he expected to get from the bootlegging venture.

"I'm an economist, I'm interested in crunching numbers," he said while
testifying on his behalf Thursday.

But Mattern suggested Logan was only looking at it as a business
venture.

"People who wrote letters on his behalf said he's not a violent
offender but his offense leads directly to violence in the villages
and that's where it was headed and he knew that's where it was
headed," Mattern said.